God Turesson

Göte Vilhelm Turesson (born April 6, 1892 in Malmö , † December 30, 1970 in Uppsala ) was a Swedish botanist and evolutionary biologist . Its botanical author abbreviation is " Turesson ".

Life

Turesson, who grew up in Sweden, studied science at the University of Washington , where he graduated with a Master of Science degree in 1915. He then returned to Sweden, where he carried out plant ecological studies from 1916. In 1921 he became a lecturer in plant genetics at Lund University , where he received his doctorate in 1922.

From 1922 to 1927 he was a lecturer at the University of Lund before he was employed at the Agricultural Research and Experimental Station in Weibullsholm near Landskrona from 1927 to 1931, where he undertook plant breeding studies.

In 1931 he returned to Lund University as a lecturer and in 1935 received a call from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala-Ultuna as Professor of Botany and Genetics, where he remained until his retirement in 1959.

Act

Turesson's pioneering plant ecological studies date from the period between 1919 and 1927, i.e. in part before his doctorate. He became one of the pioneers of evolutionary ecology and genetics because he used experimental methods to study the genetic differences between different "races" of a plant species and thus to show their adaptation to different habitats. He coined the terms ecotype (1922), glacial relict (1927) and agamospecies (1929).

With his research results he was able to show, among other things, that the genetic makeup of a population, i.e. the genotype, is essential for differentiation into subpopulations. At the time, this view contrasted with the view that the phenotype played the decisive role in natural selection in the sense of Darwin.

Turesson has planted a row of trees with Betula pubescens from different Swedish areas on the grounds of the Agricultural University in Ultuna . The trees represent a “genetic gradient” from Skåne in southern Sweden to Lapland and their phenological appearances are still evidence of Turesson's research results in a spectacular way: The birch buds begin to break up on the “southern trees” and gradually move towards the north “, While the leaves of the trees in the north begin to color in autumn and the leaves of the birch trees in the south are the last to change color and fall off.

Quote

• (1925): “With the increase in our knowledge of ecotypes, now in its beginning, a natural system of life forms will doubtlessly be built up. There can be no doubt as to the great importance of such a system for the understanding of the interrelations of plants and their habitats ... "

Honors

• 1958: Darwin Wallace Medal from the Linnean Society of London on the centenary of the Darwin publication for his contributions to genecology and the modern experimental taxonomy of higher plants. With Turesson, 19 other deserving evolutionary biologists were honored.

Selected literature

• The cause of plagiotropy in maritime shore plants. Lunds Universities Arsskrift. NF Avd. 2 vol. 16, no. 2nd 1919
• The species and variety as ecological units. Hereditas 3: 100-113. Hereditas 3: 100-113. 1922 text
• The genotypical response of the plant species to the habitat. Hereditas 3: 211-350. 1922
• The scope and import of genecology. Hereditas 4: 171-176. 1923
• The plant species in relation to habitat and climate. Hereditas 6: 147-236. 1925
• Contributions to the genecology of glacial relics. Hereditas. 9: 81-101. 1927
• The selective effect of climate upon the plant species. Hereditas 14: 99-152. 1930
• The geographic distribution of the alpine ecotype of some Eur-asiatic plants. Hereditas. 15: 329-346. 1931

swell

• Frederic L. Holmes (ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Vol. 18 (1990). Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-19178-4 .
• Richard B. Walker: God Turesson. In: Arthur Kruckeberg, Richard B. Walker and Alan E. Leviton (Eds.): Genecology and Ecogeographic Races. Papers in the Biological Sciences Presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division AAAS on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Göte Turesson. 285 pp. 9-36. Pacific Division, Amer. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Calif. Acad. of Sciences, San Francisco. 1995. ISBN 0-934394-10-5 .
• D. Briggs, SM Walters: Plant variation and evolution. Pp. 167-174. 3rd. edition. 1997. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, London, New York.

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Göte Turesson at the IPNI